Of Alcohol and Approval
by LiluyeAsala
Summary: Sera is only trying to beat that blasted cheat of a dwarf at Wicked Grace and enjoy a night off when the rigid, distant Inquisitor stumbles into the tavern.


prompt from Anonymous via Tumblr: Sera/Trevelyan, there's something I need to tell you.

I do not own Dragon Age.

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"Seeeeeerrraaaa!"

Sera looked up from her cards, her forehead furrowed.

"What?" she shouted, glancing from one end of the tavern to the other. She felt the slightest tug on one of her cards and jerked her head back, scowling at the flushing, bearded dwarf she'd had the misfortune to ply against. She trained her eyes on his own, her lip curling in a snarl.

"Don't touch my cards, or I'll rip out that beard hair by hair," she threatened. The dwarf frowned but mumbled an apology, and Sera's eyes drifted back down to her deck, one hand grasping her pint of ale and lifting it to her lips.

"Seeeeerraaaaa!"

Sera growled deep in her throat and slammed her cards facedown on the table, looking around and once again finding no source of the voice.

"Overrrr heeeere!"

Sera's eyes flicked to the left, and all thoughts of the card game vanished from her mind in a heartbeat. Because standing a few paces away from her, swaying ridiculously and without her famed greatsword strapped to her back, was the resident hardass Inquisitor Vanessa Trevelyan, grinning like a loon and clutching a half full tankard.

Sera didn't think she'd ever seen the Inquisitor smile before.

Vanessa staggered over to Sera's table, stumbling over her own two feet and spilling her drink all over the table, splashing both Sera and the dwarf. Vanessa smiled again, baring her teeth apologetically.

"Oopsies," she said, her voice clearly not sorry. The dwarf sent her a dirty glare and pushed away from the table in disgust, vanishing into the crowded tavern. Sera watched curiously, her eyebrows high on her forehead, as the normally quite rigid Inquisitor slumped into the seat that had been emptied, slamming her elbows onto the table and resting her chin in her palms, grinning all the while.

"What's got you so smiley?" Sera asked after a minute, wiping the splattered liquor off of her forehead. Vanessa shrugged her shoulders rather dramatically, and Sera peered a bit closer. "You're drunk off your ass. You're more drunk than Bull was at the Orlesian ball last week."

Vanessa tried to roll her eyes, but ended up crossing them for a moment instead.

"A liiiiittle bit," she said, pinching her fingers together in the air in a failed attempt at showing the measurement of just how drunk she was. "Justaaalitttleeebiiiit."

She looked to her left, her eyes wide open, then to her right, and leaned in very close, so Sera could smell the cloud of alcohol rolling off of her, and the mint-iron scent that was entirely Vanessa herself.

"I have something to tell you," Vanessa whispered, her voice practically brimming with excitement. Sera quirked a brow and felt her lips pulling into a smirk.

"Yeah?" she prompted. "Go on."

Vanessa raised a finger to her lips, glancing around again. "It's a...it's a secret," she said, eyes wide. She pressed her finger to Sera's lips. "Shhhh."

Sera snorted, gently pushing Vanessa's finger away and ignoring the sudden flutter in her chest.

"What's the secret then? Promise I won't tell," she said, leaning a little closer. Vanessa broke out into a dreamy smile, and before Sera understood exactly what was happening, Vanessa booped her right on the nose, giggling like a mischievous little gremlin.

"You're preeeettyyy," she sighed, twirling a strand of unruly dark hair. "Sera is so, so, soooo pretty. But shhh, it's a secret. Don't tell  
Cullen, or he'll be mad that I don't think he's pretty."

Sera was taken aback. Since when did the frigidly heterosexual, distant Inquisitor think she was pretty? And since when did she keep secrets from the musclebag of testosterone that she'd handpicked as her infatuated pet?

"What, you don't think Cullen's pretty?" she asked.

Vanessa scrunched up her nose, pursing her lips. "His hair is like noodles. I don't like noodles."

Sera laughed.

"He certainly is a noodlehead," she agreed. "But he likes you a whole lot, huh?"

Vanessa sighed, shrugging. "I suppoooose," she said, drawing the word out.

Sera leaned her cheek into her hand, observing the Inquisitor curiously.

"Is that a bad thing?" she asked. "I thought you liked him."

Vanessa bit her lip, and Sera forgot what she was doing for a moment. Vanessa's bright eyes twinkled knowingly, but then she huffed.

"He's all big and strong and mas-as-as-asculine," she said, hiccuping the word. "He thinks I'm pretty like a prin-cess. He told me so." She nodded for emphasis.

"What's so bad about that? It just means he doesn't have to get his eyesight checked," Sera replied, feeling as if she were steadily digging herself into a deeper hole. (Yes, Sera, continue making the advisor tit look like a saint. Because that's really the way to get the girl.)

Vanessa pouted.

"I dunnooo..." She slumped in her seat, her pointed chin touching the sticky table. "My father would prob-hic-ably approve. Do you know my father?"

(yes, Sera did - or at least, knew of him. Lord Anton Trevelyan, an uppity nobleman who had a stick up his arse and who defeated his opposition with money and ruthlessness.)

"I know my father," Vanessa said, her voice growing forlorn. "He and Cullen would get along."

"Most gentry girls like you want their fathers to approve, I thought," Sera observed. Vanessa grumbled something unintelligible, and groaned.

"I just wanna..."

Her head fell to the side, her dark hair tumbling onto the tabletop. Vanessa's half closed eyes watched Sera unfalteringly, and if Sera had been a little baby-man-child like Cullen, she probably would have blushed.

"You're so pretty," she murmured, a smile touching her face faintly once more. But then it fell away and her forehead creased. "Father wouldn't approve."

Her eyelashes fluttered - who had eyelashes that long, anyway? Sera certainly didn't - and then her eyes closed, a sleepy sigh pushing through her parted lips. Sera just looked at her for a minute, and then turned away.

"Hey Bull!" she shouted. "Come on, get off your ass, we need to take the Inquisitor back to the Keep."

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I hope you enjoyed this story!

If you want to send me prompts, my tumblr URL is onceuponakatie, where I normally post things first :)

Leave a comment telling me what you think!


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